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Giddy-up and Go West with WESTERN STAR
Giddy-up and Go West with WESTERN STAR
By Jason Cocovinis on October 12, 2010
"...a moving tale of redemption and romance...rich in haunting melodies including waltzes, Country Western ballads and foot-stompin' show stoppers."
--Extra!
A Musical Play by Dale Wasserman
Music and Lyrics by Bill Francoeur and Scott DeTurk
From the pen of Dale Wasserman (librettist of “Man Of La Mancha”) comes a tale of con-men, bankrupts and runners-awayers – flawed men and women lured West by the promise of new beginnings. The setting is the Colorado Territory, circa 1875. When the citizens of the town of Esperanza offer the pulpit of the proposed town church to a scheming flim-flam man, events are set in motion which will lead to the return of a recluse, the redemption of a lost soul, and the conversion of a confirmed conman.
Filled with hilarious tunes like, "Those Who've Gone Astray" and "Boys of the Flim-Fam", WESTERN STAR satirizes this unique time period in American history through a cast of unscrupulous and wily characters.
Here at MTI, we're particularly excited to announce that a new recording for WESTERN STAR is available as a reference. Samples from this new recording are currently featured on the WESTERN STAR show page. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
Dale Wasserman
A Note from Dale Wasserman, Courtesy of www.dalewasserman.com:
When hoboing through Colorado sometimes I’d drop off my designated freight train and go backpacking into the mountains. I was surprised by the number of ghost towns I’d run across — little left but rotting planks, inhabited only by lizards and packrats. At night I’d lie awake beneath the stars, imagining these towns as once they must have been and wondering why some survived and others came to these melancholy ends.
Henry David Thoreau wrote, "Eastward I go only by force, but Westward I go free." But did these people "go free?" Or in their baggage was included the defects of character which led them to abandon the East? The folks who went West were not the clear-eyed pioneers of Hollywood fame -- in general they were bankrupts, jailbirds, floozies, crooks and con-men fleeing failure or prison.
Out of these wonderings was born "Western Star," a musical speculation on the magnet that drew such people West, and of their trials when they got there.
The musical score, written by Bill Francoeur and Scott DeTurk, is perfectly wonderful, I claim, and wonderfully melodic and singable.
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